Half Past Midnight
by DuHSPaZZiNGFeL
Summary: The only way to get his body back, could be something different from what Al expected, until his brother suddenly disappears from his life through a Gate and a light that was Truth. "You could lose everything and nothing." NO ELRICEST.
1. The Truth is the Lie

**AN: Hello out there! I know I don't usually write for FMA, but I haven't exactly "wrote" in a really long time. I hope you find this up to par. And of course, my recent unhealthy obsession is FMA.**

**Half Past Midnight  
Chapter One: The Truth is the Lie**

_I took a hold of the faraway sound  
And it rang in my ear  
I could hear no more  
But I could still see  
And you were tranquil before me._

"There it is, Al!"

"I see it brother!"

A feeling of pure excitement and thrill engulfed the two siblings like never before, washing them in a joy that felt so unbelievable that it was almost impossible to know if it was real at all. The sensation was completely new, like the light at the end of a tunnel in a distant dream. _No, this could never be real_, they both thought, _it's too good to be true. _

How was it to reach a goal that seemed so far in the future, so unattainable that it was worth laughing at? How was it that somehow, at some point, you would be able to reach this goal in the first place?

Unfeasible.

Unexplainable.

Unpredictable.

Alphonse could almost laugh as they finally spotted the unmistakable white light that burned through their vision. He thought he could be dreaming, but that wouldn't be possible at all. The last time he dreamt was over five years ago. His armored body could not fall asleep. No, he hadn't fallen asleep in so long…

"You have come yet again, Edward Elric."

Suddenly, it was as if reality snapped him back to focus on the matter at hand. There, sitting ominously before them, was Truth. His legs were crossed while smiling a mysterious smile and managing to send a chill throughout the Door's existence.

And the Truth, one could say, was only the beginning. He was there to mock them, to torture their own truths out of their unwilling minds. He was there to be an obstacle, yet more than that. An enemy? Only a fool would oppose Truth. Only if a fool were brave enough, only if a human was strong enough to go against him would anyone stand with even a sliver of hope.

"Have you come to receive what you desire?" The rippling yearning of Truth itself devoured the nonexistent sound. And then, suddenly, Edward was scared. An irrational fear had built up in his chest like none other before. It was as if he was looking at a light that would soon flicker out, but it terrified him.

"If you can call a body, an arm, and a leg a desire," he said with a shaky, but confident voice, "Then you'd be right." Truth grinned dangerously as Ed added, "You're wrong though. It's more of a demand."

"A demand? What is your equivalent exchange? Whose soul shall I take? Yours or your brother's? Or will I be taking a limb or an organ?" Truth's bright and ominous light only seemed to take over the Gate. "I would be more than willing to take all of the above as the toll price, foolish human."

Edward took a deep breath. He had to calm himself. He knew what he had to ask, what he had to do. In fact, he was almost not afraid at all, but that was just it: he was _almost _not afraid.

Almost.

"I'll give you more than an equivalent exchange," he said with all the bravery he could muster as he felt his younger brother's gaze bore into his back. He felt uneasy. He had never told anyone, not even Al, how he really planned to set things straight. Ed knew deep in the back of his mind that this was the only sure way of getting at least one body back. "You can have _my_ soul, along with everything that comes with it."

Alphonse trembled, his empty hands shaking, "Brother, no!"

His older brother ignored his plea, and continued on. "Your equivalent exchange is to return my brother's body to him along with attaching his soul to it." Smirking, he lifted his confident eyes onto the white figure before him. "Is that enough of a toll price?"

_No, _Al thought to himself, cowering in his own fear of losing his only brother, _No! NO! I will not lose brother! _

They were all they had, right? They were all the family left and they always stuck together, never separated unless necessary, never breaking promises and telling each other everything. They had the other's back, kept them safe and sound as best as they could if no one else was capable of doing so. So then why was this happening in the first place? Nothing seemed to make sense anymore, like a swirling whirlpool of dark colors were merging together to form one big, fat, _lie_.

"This is your last chance Truth."

Ed's voice rang out in the distance like he was about to disappear…

"Colonel Bastard's waiting for _someone _to come back as a military dog."

A rumbling white floor…

"What will it be?"

Al tried to move his body, he really _tried_, but in the end it was all futile. His arm was frozen in place, reaching out to touch his brother's shoulder. He hadn't even realized he had reached out at all, until it was past too late. And then the faint rumbling of their blank surroundings grew heavy, penetrating through skeletal defenses, and bringing a sense of ominous foreboding to taunt them. But Edward wasn't afraid anymore. He knew what was about to happen and it was time he accepted the truth.

_What a paradoxical word, _the Fullmetal Alchemist thought to himself, _the truth the world is searching for is not as sadistic as this one._

A ringing, but softly mysterious laughter echoed throughout the surroundings, enveloping what seemed to be in reality, until Truth himself began to dissipate. The infamous Gate appeared before the two, one standing before it bravely, donning a crimson cloak, and the other clad in cold metal, awaiting what he feared the most.

The Gate, to both brothers, resembled the darkness of the Earth, a symbol of their miserable failure that they had spent years to erase. It was black, shocking in terrible pretense, and stood before them closed. Oddly enough, a golden glow sparked to life on its edges, a confounding light in an obvious night. The younger and the elder did not yet understand the occurrence, but it was clear to both that one of them would soon walk through the black to never return again.

The radiance only seemed to burn brighter as the Gate opened just a crack, refusing to open wider. At first, this confused the alchemist, turning to his protesting little brother, and his heart wrenching at the sight. The inside wasn't as he had remembered it last. It was a gold, welcoming color, like the honeysuckle blooms on a spring afternoon. Last he had seen the interior it had been dark with writhing, creeping shadows forcing him in.

Edward Elric didn't get a chance to notice that he too had begun to fade away.

Alphonse's right, empty arm was outstretched to his brother, whose right arm was crumbling gently into an abyss in return. The automail was becoming shimmering speckles of reflected light, floating upwards and eventually disappearing. At the same time, his own right arm was gradually returning to normal, forming into a pale, but skin clad limb.

"Brother!" Al shouted frantically as he was frozen in place still, and he realized that Truth hadn't wanted him to move at all, that he was meant to be able to do virtually nothing as he watched his precious brother disintegrate before his eyes. "You can't!"

"Ed! Don't let it take you!"

But all he could do was watch in horror.

His body parts were returning to the way they used to be: human. He should be elated, excited, _happy_, but he was the exact opposite of that fleeting emotion. The boy watched Edward's content smile that was still etched on his face, his shining and golden eyes that only glimmered with ecstasy as they saw the sight before them.

Edward knew that this instant was the happiest he would ever feel in life, even if they were his final moments. And as his limbs disappeared, his brothers returned. He kept his end of the promise, even if he will never be able to see the full result. Ed was content. He was at peace. He was finally proud of himself.

And when the last of his body was faded from existence, only his upper body and left arm remained, but slowly dissolving as well; he reached out his only arm left and touched his flesh fingers to the trembling human fingers of his only brother.

It was only a whisper, a raspy and barely audible one, but the voice rang clearly through as Alphonse's face suddenly began to return in the form of a young boy.

"Goodbye Al," the whisper said.

Only Edward's eyes were left and there were tears of joy in them as he finally saw the face he wanted to see again for so many years, and then he was gone.

For the first time in so many years, Alphonse Elric wished he was a metal suit of armor, because even then, maybe it would hurt a little less and he wouldn't have to feel the tears run down his cheeks. And he was so desperately reaching for the last of his family.


	2. How the Heart Beats

**Chapter Two: How the Heart Beats**

_If only I could remember at least  
The way a smile was  
And to be joyous again  
In something hollow  
And you would be there to follow._

The white light…

The fading darkness…

Was that all some nightmare?

Alphonse awoke in the arms of First Lieutenant Riza. Wait. _Awoke? _This wasn't possible. He was supposed to be made of armor! Metal! Empty! His tired eyes looked down on himself. Somehow, he was fully clothed, skinny and pale, but alive and actually human. Al knew he should be feeling great, but something in the back of him mind told him otherwise. Where was he anyway? All he could tell was that it was dark and damp and smelled of the dead…

Dead.

_No, this can't be happening._

"BROTHER!" He felt himself shout in a terrible hoarse voice, shocking himself and his companion. "No," he said breathlessly, "Where is he? Where is my brother?!"

Tears were rapidly forming in his eyes as he forced himself to sit up next to the woman, his head spinning with dizziness and absolute fear. One glance at the Lieutenant's facial expression, and he knew. Al knew his one, and only brother was gone forever.

"Don't," he quivered, "Don't tell me he's dead." She looked down, avoiding eye contact with the boy and finding the floor far more interesting than the human face of a child who had his soul attached to an unoccupied shell for a good portion of his life. "Brother was supposed to get his body back too…"

"He said we would get them back together! He promised we would stick together!"

Shaking hands covering his face, Al cried like he never had before. He was sobbing, shoulders trembling so violently that even if one would try to calm him, he was inconsolable. "B-Brother did it again, didn't he?" he murmured to no one in particular, "He sacrificed everything he could to save me…"

Riza was unsure as she rubbed the boy's back, her own tears cascading in slow ripples on her cheekbones at the news of the death of a dear friend. The Fullmetal Alchemist, _gone_? This had to be a bad joke. She felt the stare of Colonel Mustang and knew that the rain would soon come, just like it had for Maes Hughes.

"Brother always saves me…" he choked, "But what have I ever done? Brother blamed himself for everything. He thought that whatever he did couldn't be forgiven, so he tried everything to make it better. But what am I supposed to do now?"

Al was talking to himself, almost completely unaware of the other two people watching him.

"He was my _only_ brother…"

And at that very moment, Alphonse knew what the real Truth was. In the world, in life, there was no such thing as equivalent exchange. If it was equal, people wouldn't disappear from lives. There was no equivalency. It was just foolish dream of the world, a power that people wished to control. If Truth had access to all knowledge, why would he take Edward? Truth did not need that exchange, but yet, he took him away. That was not like on both sides of the equation. Instead, it was imbalanced and imperfect.

Equivalent exchange never existed.

It was a child's stupid dream.

If only, if only it was real, then you would know exactly what to expect at every turn of life, know exactly what you would receive. Al knew that if things were the way they ought to be, maybe the theory would thrive.

The true world was made of constant sacrifices, of deaths and births and new beginnings. But in a war, there could be twenty deaths and only three births. Where was the equivalency in that?

No, it didn't subsist after all.

"We have to get out of here!" He heard the distant call of Mustang as he tried to shake himself out of his reverie. "This place is falling apart!"

Indeed it was, Al noticed vaguely, touching his hands to the coal hued concrete and feeling the inbound earthquake. Pebbles found themselves clashing subtly onto the ground, making _ker-plunk _sounds as they hit, and shivering stones glanced off the earthen tremor. No matter what, all three of them had to get away.

It was a cruel fact really, leaving what seemed to be what was left of his older brother behind, but the adrenaline rushed through his system as the ceiling turned to rubble. One after the other, their legs lifted off the floor, running like they had wings propelling air attached to their feet. The sky was open country, a free but desolate place. And the swirling whirls of dust were the uninviting storm clouds that threatened a faraway path to liberation.

It was then that the brother left behind realized yet another truth: the world lives on. Life was an endless cycle, he knew that already. One is all and all is one. We are all part of the same whole. But the cycle was never ending, and even though Edward wasn't there, the Earth would continue to turn.

What type of fate was humanity resigned to? What was this brutal existence? It was a fact of life that no one seemed to understand completely. Even though the planet looked like it stopped just for him, Alphonse knew it hadn't for almost everyone else. He had to keep on living, especially for the sacrifice that brought him back to his body.

A planet may persist on rotating for a million years, but the hearts of those affected would halt for only a second.

Though, his heart seemed to stop for days on end…

**AN: SPOILER- Please take into consideration that the Colonel will not be blind in this story.  
Short chapter, I know. But the next ones will be longer. This one is more Al trying to accept what just happened, but obviously I don't want to dwell on that fact for too long, it runs dry.  
**


	3. One Step and Back Again

**Chapter Three: One Step and Back Again**

_The lands and the skies breathe  
And push their way through  
Into a distant horizon  
All from end to end  
And I hear you sail across the river bend._

They sprinted up the slanted staircase with feigned ease. By then, adrenaline kicked in and there was almost nothing else anyone could think about except to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. Even the chimeras, they spotted, scurried for dear life to escape the musty tunnels of the underground.

Heartbeats only appeared as if they were thudding louder, to the point in which Colonel Mustang, First Lieutenant Riza, and Alphonse could hear each one resonating with the world.

In the back of his mind, Alphonse faintly heard his brother speaking his infamous line:

"You have legs. Get up and use them."

The boy could feel himself holding back hysterical laughter. It was ironic. Who knew that right after Edward disappeared behind the Gate, he would use the words so literally?

Edward.

Ed?

No, his loving older brother.

He heard Mustang yelling over the reverberating walls, "Scar, Mei, and the others were separated from us! You think they'll be at the surface?" The state alchemist breathed hard as his legs carried him through numerous flights of stairs, giving the illusion of a bird that just won its wings.

"I see a light at the end of the tunnel!" It was the Lieutenant who was shouting at the top of her lungs now, "I hope we can make it…"

She tripped over a step until she was the first one to force open the cracked metal door, its taunting brilliance shining from the city on the other side.

"…OUT!" She yelped when all three of them finally toppled one on top of the other and onto a shaking alleyway.

"Ugh! Get off of me Colonel!"

"Why is your sniper gun puncturing my liver?!"

"Would you rather it puncturing your head?!"

Brushing themselves off, Riza Hawkeye and Roy Mustang stood, while the boy who was unlucky enough to be on the bottom of the pile murmured, "I think I was just crushed by two adults…"

Finally noticing their surroundings fully, they realized that the city was in chaos. The ground still shook violently, people ran around like frantic animals released from their cages, and there were screams as boulders from the tallest buildings came crashing down.

_KA-BOOM! _A relatively large one had landed nearby.

_Well, it's much better being crushed on top on the city with hundreds of rocks than obliterated underneath with thousands. _

The rush took over yet again. It looked like wherever they went, there was no where quite safe enough to satisfy them. Children were whimpering, crossing the streets and searching for their lost parents, Amestrian military roamed frantically throughout the streets in order to make a fruitless attempt at order.

Alphonse couldn't help but wonder where the others were presently, until, as fate would have it, he literally ran into Mei. Surprised, the three members in his groups looked up to see the people they were looking for: Scar, the two chimeras, and Mei.

"So where's the little shrimp?" Darius, or as Al recalled that brother prefers, no, _preferred_, to call him Donkey Kong. "That bean sprout gone off to do something rash again?"

"And who's this guy?" he added, pointing an accusing thumb at the malnourished Alphonse.

Hastily replying, Mustang said that Alphonse Elric had finally regained his body. After a brief moment of shock, Heinkel, the lion chimera, restated his companion's question about the whereabouts of the young Mr. Rice Grain.

And suddenly, Al felt the penetrating gazes of the Colonel and his faithful subordinate. His eyes led to the rumbling ground on a frantic street, shuddering pebbles bouncing in their places. But at that moment, the younger Elric's world was at a standstill. Of course he immediately told himself that he had to move on, brother would want him to be strong. But the wound was still fresh. It had been barely an hour since, though it seemed like forever.

Involuntarily, his dark gold eyes began to water, and unlike the pure gold ones of his brother, they were weaker somehow.

Actions spoke louder than words, and at that second that statement couldn't be truer than it already was.

"No," he heard someone whisper hoarsely, "It can't be…"

And from that moment, as the group scoured the city for survivors and in order to fight off the remaining adversaries, everyone seemed just a little bit different. Mei hadn't spoken a word the entire time, and even if she didn't know Edward very well, she had no words to speak of. Everyone else mutually followed suit, either avoiding the subject completely or concentrating on the task at hand. Although it was a cruel and utterly morbid thought, there would be time to mourn later.

But of course, the most changed was Alphonse. For some reason he had new found determination, and he couldn't remove himself from it. His mind was set. _There's no turning back_, he said in his mind, _I know brother would want me to keep moving forward, so that's exactly what I'll do!_

"_If I died the world would continue to move along as if nothing had happened."_

"_Because you're just a small part of it."_

Those times back then, he remembered them well, and in the midst of this battle, they kept him going.

"_The cycle of life only goes one direction, not even alchemy can change that."_

Push, push, step, step, clap and make a transmutation. Save yourself. Save everyone. Save the city. Turn and duck, stoop and stand, and soon the puppet humans had arrived. They drooled with delight, as if savoring the terror ensuing around them as the grounds continually quaked. But soon they found themselves in the entrance of the Armstrong estate, fighting yet again, for their dear lives.

It wasn't over yet, not until the trouble was completely defeated.

And then—

"So you know Truth?"

"It's time for the choice to be made."

"What will you choose?"

"_Who_ will you choose?"

"You have everything and nothing to lose."

**AN: Yes, I know, another unbearably short chapter. It seems that when I try to write the ideas together, they just somehow become smaller. It's odd. I'll make another attempt at a long one.**


	4. In Order to Feel

**Chapter Four: In Order to Feel**

_The ways to live forever  
Are only just dreams  
That grasp children's hands  
All in a blinding ray of hope  
And I sense you freeing me from my prison's rope_.

There is was again: the brilliant white light.

It felt as though his newly adjusted eyes would never fully get used to having a soul back. Everything was too bright, too young, and positively too eerie. There was a numb feeling that spread throughout Alphonse's body, tickling his limbs and reaching his thin cheekbones, ruffling his dark golden hair to its roots. But that wasn't all he could think about at the moment, no, there was something more, something ominous and protruding.

"Tremble in fear, child," a raspy voice whispered in his ear. Al seemed to jump a few feet in the nonexistent air, for there was none as far as he could tell. "Tell me if it hurts."

At first, Al could not understand. Nothing hurt, right? He wasn't injured. Sure, his body was weak from being in the Gate for so long, but his brother brought him back.

"I know Pain."

A flash and there was Edward, standing before him and fading away into the same wispy particles as he did before, drifting into a silent and unknowing abyss, never to be seen again by human eyes. That was his brother, his one and only _brother_.

"I know Misery."

He was crumbling away from his sight again, disappearing forever. And then he heard a scream, the scream of a younger Edward calling to him, struggling to attach his soul onto an antique suit of armor, struggling to save him from the depths of the darkness.

"I know Truth."

And there was Edward again, yelling in sightless ache, as he wept in his nightmares as Alphonse watched, unable to help. His tears slid down his cheeks, and his mouth coarsely whispered "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Al!" His older sibling's guilt seeped into a night-filled room, when all Al wanted Ed to know was that he was forgiven a long time ago. He had sacrificed so much for him already.

"I am all those things. I am the Truth of the world. I am Hate."

An ominous smile.

And Envy wished.

And Lust beckoned.

And Gluttony devoured.

And Pride stood.

And Sloth dragged.

And Greed wanted.

And Wrath pined.

They were mocking him to no foreseeable end. They pushed him to the floor, overflowing with ridiculous mirth until he could no longer glance past the threatening tears that obscured his vision, made his surroundings blurry like steamy breath on frigid glass. He was in the middle of the circle, constantly being pounded with unrelenting stones of distant and agonizing memories.

"We have you now, Alphonse Elric!"

"You disgrace of a little brother!"

"Trash!"

"Filthy scum!"

He trembled with anxiety, shaking from head to toe. There was no sliver of light to guide him down someplace dark, and _nothing_ he could do to change that fact. His back was pressed up against a sandy wall. Eventually it would happen; he would be stoned into submission until there was no lifeblood within him left.

But then again, nothing could be compared to this _guilt_…

-

"Where _are you _Alphonse?!"

Things were turning into a frantic chase with no immediate answer. Only seconds ago, the youngest Elric brother had abruptly disappeared with a flash of blinding light. If it had not been for the returning sight that seemed to slowly come clear to him, Colonel Mustang would have believed that the light was truly blinding.

Wisps of fresh smoke slithered upward from the spot where the adolescent teenager had once been. Besides that occurrence, nothing of importance could be qualified as evidence of his vanishing act, that is, if you could call it an act at all. Panic stricken, even though the Flame Alchemist would most definitely _not _admit it, he stumbled to his feet again, avoiding the fallen bodies of their enemies.

"Colonel!" He heard the rushed cry of one of his subordinates. Breda? Fury? Falman? When had they arrived at the scene? He couldn't remember, but he supposed that that inquisitive thought did not matter in the slightest. "Mustang! What just happened? We were just on our way here when we saw some crazy light!"

_Ah, so it was Breda._

The Flame Alchemist thoroughly rubbed the surprise from his eyes with the tips of his gloved fingers. "I think I might have a theory," he said with a tone that was a cross between frustration, irritation, and slight anxiousness. "I wouldn't be surprised if we've gotten ourselves into an even worse predicament."

He heard Fury hold back a sob that gave the impression that it was previously lodged at the back of his throat. "We heard about Ed."

And amidst the entire ruckus on the makeshift battlefield, there was a silence.

"I see…" A sigh. "From who?"

"Lieutenant Hawkeye," Falman replied hastily, "sir."

It seemed that the fight they all thought would be inevitable once again had taken a turn for the better –excluding the disappearance of Al, or the fact that the older Elric was never coming back…

All of the soldiers, including those who were on the traitor—Fuhrer Bradley's side—were incapacitated. Nothing and _no one _was in the position to fight. Of course, the subordinates of the Colonel himself, the Colonel, and the companions of Scar, had somehow narrowly managed an escape from injury. It was as if it was all planned from the beginning.

_Undoubtedly a peculiar situation._

What had caused the unexpected explosion of light? If he was being honest with himself, Roy could only take a wild guess, like picking a card from a deck with your eyes shut tight. In other words, he had no remote idea.

"And Alphonse?"

_I was hoping to avoid the subject…_

He sighed, he himself trying to hold back the feeling of loss. "Fullmetal took the initiative to retrieve his body for him…what a moronic kid."

"I'm sorry sir," Breda wondered, "I'm afraid I don't fully understand. I mean, he can't be…you know…_gone_. Not that kid." And with that, the two behind him looked down with remorse.

"You don't have to be an alchemist to get it, Second Lieutenant. If Havoc was not MIA, he would comprehend the circumstances as well."

They stared at him in question, half at ease that the fighting with rival armies and homunculus was temporarily at a stand-still, half awaiting the dreaded response from their respected superior officer.

"The answer is quite simple: Equivalent Exchange."

-

A boy groped for the tendril of glowing, opaque, string that floated above him. Something inside him told him to reach higher, _higher_—_damn it_—until his human skin could finally feel its ghostly presence in this forsaken sinister hole. He couldn't see anything, not for the existence he had left, and his gut feeling was the only thing that was guiding his actions.

And then he heard something whisper at the back of his mind.

_Alphonse. Do you remember? Did you forget?_

So that name, was that his? It was his name, wasn't it? He could barely remember anything.

_How could you forget your only brother? Edward, was that what he was called?_

And suddenly, a rush of memories fled back to him, as if he hadn't forgotten them at all. But it was painful, too painful for him to handle alone. As a regrettable result, the whisperer added, the little child quivered and screamed in agony.

_That's right, my naïve child, he _died _and it's all _your fault.

"BROTHER!"

**AN: This is still shorter than I'd like it to be, but I cannot resist a decent mysterious cliffhanger. **


	5. The Falling Rain

**Chapter Five: The Falling Rain  
**_  
Dancing through the cruel unknown  
Like a frightful past  
But only to forget the reason  
All from things left unseen  
And I wish you could pull back the separating screen_.

"Don't let go," he whispered desperately to himself, "Don't let go!"

There was an eternal blackness that filled everything from ceiling to ground; there was no trace of the tiniest beam of light. All that existed was pure emptiness, and that was all that resided in the dangling boy's mind. His hands struggled to keep a firm grip on an invisible cliff, legs hanging off from the edge, and swaying dangerously from side to side.

"Damn it! Stop jerking me around, Truth!"

And his voice only echoed in silence.

"DAMN!"

A rippling sound of a splash resounded below him, telling his listening ears that something had fallen into the unseen opaque waters. But in the midnight room, one could only question so many things. So what _had _fallen into the black abyss? All he knew was that he could never see past his own dangling feet.

And there was nothing at all.

-

"I'm sorry, sir?" Kain Fuery asked carefully. "That can't be Equivalent Exchange!" The groups surrounding the glasses clad soldier seemed to stand in shock and agreement.

But nonetheless, Mustang replied heavily. "A life for a life. Equivalency. The equation can't get more balanced than that." He sighed in defeat. "All alchemists know that human transmutation comes with a grave price, you either survive or barely survive. But only the ones, like the Elric brothers, who are great enough alchemists to withstand it, know the real truth that everyone else does not."

A silent rumble flashed across the sky as a stroke of lightning scarred it.

"Don't ask me anymore about it," the Colonel said abruptly, changing the subject on the spot, "I don't know what happened, and I've never tried to transmute a human. Our main objective is to see if Alphonse Elric is still alive."

The remaining allies all stood straight with formal saluting right hands. The First Lieutenant had already whipped out a fully loaded sniper gun, forcefully clicking the ignition on an unlucky crumbled building as makeshift target practice. And when the bullets looked secure, the army was ready.

Their boots stomped willingly as the storm came pouring down, and flecks of water droplets would stick themselves onto waiting pieces of exposed dark blue clothing. Then came the white streaks of thunder and lightning, and the rain didn't seem to stop.

_How ironic, _thought the Flame Alchemist, _The rain always seems to come down in dramatic moments like these._

And soon, he began to cover his gloved hands with the dark blue fabric of his pockets. Maybe, just maybe, he would save the ignition cloth from a wet start that just might save a couple of insignificant lives. The world was gradually turning into the hellhole the thought it was. But he supposed, that wherever the last Elric was, his world was nothing compared to the dread that the younger boy was experiencing.

_I hate the rain_, the Colonel thought.

-

The pounding of an unknown banter reflected off his ears. It was infuriating, really, and it only fueled the fire within his heart. He had no idea where he was, nor what the heck he was doing here in the first place. It was utterly bright and blinding, a massive expanse of a colorless expanse that led to nowhere. As far as he knew, he had been here a while. A few hours, maybe?

A few days?

Weeks?

Months?

Or could it be…_years_?

"This is so frustrating!" The boy yelled on the top of his lungs, hands covering his entire face. "Get me out of here! Someone! Brother!"

_Oh, brother! Brother! _Brother! _Come save me! _

There it was again, that terrible mocking voice that he seemed to hear everywhere he went. Who was speaking to him? Who would dare talk to him at a time like this? But, whoever the voice belonged to, Alphonse knew that he hated it with a passion, and for whatever that reason was, he was awfully angry at it and he had no motive to care why.

_I think not, Alphonse Elric. You know me and my name. You've always known me. Of course, throughout the world I am known by many different aliases. I was always there, within the back of your mind, of _everyone's _mind. And let me tell you something, _the voice cackled, _I have your brother and he is so _desperately _struggling to break free._

"I don't know who you are! Please, give me back my brother!"

_I'm known as the sun, the moon, the sky, the one, the all. I am everything. I am nothing, and I am also you. _

"I don't understand!"

_You do not have to human. You know me very well. In fact, so well that I am the truth of it all. I am the Truth._

Alphonse finally knew who the voice was. He knew why he hated it so much, with such a fiery passion that is hurt his chest. So this was Truth. This was the vague figure that taunted him and his brother. This…this _thing _was the one that stole Edward's arm and leg, and his own body. He was the one who stole his brother.

"Truth! You know nothing of equivalent exchange!" He yelled as he desperately clawed around with his hands, still too blinded by light to see anything clearly. He crawled like a newborn child on the blank flooring, trying to search for the body of Truth.

_Don't speak to me that way, boy. Is that anyway to speak to your world's Ishvalla? Your world's supposed adonai, great spirit, god?_

The angry teenager in front of him only grew all the more furious. How dare he? How could this thing take those names so easily, without any hesitation at all? "You have no right to defile those names!" he shouted back lividly, still making an attempt to gather a frantic reach forward, "You are never god! You're Hell! My world would never think of you this way!"

Then, the Gate appeared before them, and opened just a crack.

-

And as the rain came down faster, and more brutally than just moments ago, mysterious gushes of black, inky material washed out onto the concrete, engulfing every living thing in its path. Tiny and childlike hands gripped onto poles and broken debris, clutching them in a grasp that was never supposed to be there, like a terrifying shadow in a distant past.

But the soldier just noticed, albeit barely, what was going on, and fear spread throughout the landscape. She shot her remaining bullets at the dark substance, knowing full well that it was a futile attempt for survival. The bullet shells ricocheted off puddles, ignored and unusable, splashing water left and right.

If there was one thing for sure, they were all going to die, and Riza Hawkeye knew it was inevitable.

**AN: Sorry it took so long. I'll update more frequently! I had too many projects and tests to bear recently. And I apologize, yet again, for the shortness of the chapter.**


End file.
